A short twenty minutes later, roughly speaking, they’d found the road, scouted it, and decided which way they wanted to go. Unfortunately after a good half hour of using their powers to scout ahead, neither Alice nor Cyan had found a single sign of civilization in either direction. So they would definitely be walking for a while, no matter which direction they chose to go.
“Alright ladies, it looks like we’ve got a long walk ahead of us, with a certain trio potentially catching up to us at any point along the way. So here’s what we’re going to do. Akane, you take point and keep an eye out for trouble on the road that way. Cassandra, you can help her,” Nabiki ordered, giving Akane and the elf Pokégirl their positions first.
“Right, you can count on me, everyone,” Akane shot back enthusiastically, agreeing with the proposed plan. Trusting her with the lead position seemed to stroke Akane’s ego just a little bit as well, but at least it kept her happy. Which was why, Nabiki didn’t feel the need to tell her little sister that she was there because it was the least likely direction any trouble would be coming from.
“Glad to hear it sis. Now Alice, you keep an eye on the left side of the road in case we run into any wild Pokégirls along the way, okay? Cyan, I’d like you to do the same thing on the right side of the road. Ranma, your job is going to be watching our rear incase Gary and his friends come up behind us with that RV they’re supposed to have. Kasumi and I aren’t really combatants; so we’ll be in the middle trying to help the rest of you keep an eye out for trouble as well,” Nabiki finished her instructions without interruption.
The three Pokégirls seemed to appreciate the instructions immensely and quickly took up their assigned positions happily. “Ranma can watch my rear as much as she wants to, and then some,” one of the Pokégirls whispered just a little too loudly. Nabiki suspected it’d been Alice that said it, only she couldn’t be certain.
Either way, the comment left all three Pokégirls giggling and set Akane’s temper on a slow burn, but at least she didn’t say anything about it. Thankfully, Ranma managed to keep her own mouth shut as well, and was doing her level best to pretend that she hadn’t heard the Pokégirl’s comment at all.
Unfortunately for Ranma, the full body blush she was sporting right now was a dead give away for the truth. Their Pokégirl friends seemed to think her reaction was cute too, judging from their muffled giggling. Although it was amusing, Nabiki actually felt a little pity for Ranma when all three Pokégirls started flaunting themselves just to see how red they could make poor Ranma blush.
Luckily for all of seven of them, Ranma eventually figured out that the three of them couldn’t tease her as easily if she simply walked backwards. The Pokégirls pouted a little at first, but at least Ranma’s little trick got them to give up their silent teasing for a little while. And when the silent teasing and muffled giggling stopped, so did Akane’s slow burn, for the time being anyway.
“Professor Nova, we’re nearing the source of the temporal rift we detected two hours ago. We should catch up to them in another ten minutes or so at our current speed,” Lou, a blond Cyber-Nymph called into the back of the RV she was driving.
“Kya ha haha ha! Excellent! Excellent news my dear, Lou! Is our target still on the move?” an equally blond professor Nova cackled maniacally. The man was decent enough looking, or would be if he ever bothered removing the odd ‘robot eyes’ mask he always seemed to insist on wearing. And of course, as anyone could tell from hearing the man laugh he was nearly as mad as he was brilliant.
“Target is still on the move, Professor. Speed and course remain constant as well,” Lou confirmed, checking the radar beside her periodically.
“Kya ha ha! I can’t wait to meet whoever came through that rift. After all, they can’t help but be saturated with the karma of another world, one completely different from our own! In fact, by their very existence they will inevitably alter this damaged world, possibly on a scale we can’t even imagine. That is assuming that they aren’t killed first, or their psyches destroyed by the overwhelming weight of this world’s own karma. That of course is the entire reason I wish to find them, to ensure their survival in this cruel world! What they do after that will be entirely up to them, whoever they might be. But no matter what choices they will make, I will relish the chance to see what sort of impact they will have on this world. Kya hah ha ha!” Professor Desty Nova exclaimed with a brand of mad glee that only he could muster.
Fortunately, Lou and the rest of Professor Nova’s official harem of Pokégirls were long since used to his maniacal mannerisms. So she just kept on driving as if having a maniacal genius less than ten feet away from her was perfectly normal. Which really had been the norm for Lou for just over a year now.
However, there were a few Pokégirls, currently in storage, that hadn’t adjusted as favorably to Professor Nova’s . . . peculiar personality. Only those Pokégirls weren’t really considered a part of the harem anyway, and were officially registered as ‘experimental subjects’ anyway.
Alita- Lou’s reluctant former partner -seemed to almost hate the professor. She even went as far as actively refusing to come out of her Pokéball for anything other than food, reluctant tamings, and battle. Alita was extremely passionate about fighting, but not even frequent use in Pokébattles had gotten her to warm up to Professor Nova.
One of Alita’s remaining clones, Sechs, was if anything even more passionate about fighting than Alita was. But at least she hadn’t spent most of the last year inside a Pokéball sulking over being saved, and even improved, by Professor Nova like Alita had.
Elf and Zwolf seemed to like the professor enough, or getting tamed by him anyway. Then again those two seemed to like just about anyone, especially if they thought that they could get a taming session out of them. That was part of why Lou got along with the two clones so well, both off and on the job.
Lou herself hardly even noticed the Professor’s antics anymore. She was just happy not to get executed as a member of ASS (Anarchy Suppression Section) last year. After inter-league authorities discovered and forcibly disbanded ASS as a black op. organization a year or so ago. She didn’t know how the professor had gotten the authorities to spare their lives. Yet, Lou had been unconditionally loyal to the man ever since, insane or not.
“Hey guys, we might wanna get out of the road. We’ve got company coming up behind us, and they’re moving pretty fast!” Ranma announced fifteen minutes into her latest bout of walking backwards. So far, every time Ranma thought she could turn around and start walking normally again, the three new girls would notice and start acting all weird again.
“Is it Gary and his bunch?” Nabiki asked hurriedly, immediately following her advice along with Kasumi, Akane, and the rest. Nabiki didn’t sound worried as much as it sounded like she was trying to think up a strategy in case it really was the perverted geek and his two cronies.
“Can’t say for sure. But they’re moving fast enough that I wouldn’t risk it not being them,” Ranma told her honestly, happily letting Nabiki work out a group strategy for them. Ranma was almost peerless in one-on-one fighting, and she wasn’t too shabby when ganged up on either.
But fighting as part of a team, however, wasn’t something Ranma had done a lot of, never mind mastered it yet. Normally Ranma would rather die than admit to any sort of weakness or shortcoming in the martial arts. Except that her life wasn’t what was at stake here, not according to the new girls in their group, scary looking or not.
Nope, it was her girl side’s cup size that was at stake here. If she were a guy right now, she wouldn’t care; unfortunately Ranma was a girl just now, and her overgrown D-cups were plenty more than she wanted to deal with already. So if Nabiki had a strategy that would keep her girl form’s stupid breasts from getting any bigger today, then Ranma was definitely willing to give it a shot.
“Okay everyone, we don’t know whether it’s really them or not. But the odds aren’t in our favor at the moment, so everyone spread out and hide along the tree line. With any luck at all, they’ll drive right past us and leave us alone,” Nabiki ordered everyone after hearing Ranma’s warning.
They split into pairs as all seven of them ran to the woods on either side of them, only Ranma didn’t have a partner for obvious reasons. Akane and Cassandra darted into the woods on the left of them, with Kasumi and Cyan only about twenty feet away from them on the same side. Nabiki ducked right with Alice in tow, the duo making an oddly matched pair for some reason. Meanwhile Ranma ducked right simply because it was closer to her.
The large, armored looking RV kicking up a dust trail behind them slowed to a sliding stop almost dead beside Ranma’s hiding spot. The dust cloud swept forward and past the vehicle with its sudden stop, completely obscuring it from view for a few seconds.
“Where is . . . ? Ah! Well hello there, my dear girl. Given the size and output of the dimensional rift that brought you here, I must admit that I was expecting a little more than a mere child to enter this world. But no matter, you are here from another world, and I am absolutely thrilled to meet you, dear child!” announced a male silhouette from within the still roiling dust cloud.
Stepping out of the dust, the silhouette resolved itself into a blond man with curly, slicked back hair and a strange mask of some sort covering his eyes. The man, whoever he was, was looking directly at Ranma within an instant, as if neither the dust cloud nor the hedge she’d hidden behind were there at all.
On the positive side of things, this guy didn’t look at all like that Gary kid, and it didn’t seem like he was out for revenge against them. On the other hand it was almost scary just how fast the guy had spotted Ranma’s hiding place. And how in the hell did he know that she was from another dimension; was it stamped on Ranma’s forehead or something?
Subtly bracing herself for any signs of trouble, Ranma decided to give up her hiding spot to see what the man wanted. It wasn’t like he hadn’t found her already anyway, and if this guy had his attention focused on Ranma, then he wasn’t as likely to spot the others just yet.
“How do you know that I’m from another world, mister? And while you’re at it, just who the hell are you anyway?” demanded Ranma as she hopped out into the open to confront the man.
“Forgive me, young lady. My name is Professor Desty Nova; I’m something of a researcher and scientist of this world. As to how I know that you are from another world, I was simply lucky enough to be in detection range of the rift that brought you here. After I realized what it was, all I had to do was isolate the rift’s energy signature; then I was easily able to track you here, Miss . . . ? ,” Nova introduced and explained himself.
“I’m Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. And despite being one right now I’m not really a girl, so please stop calling me ‘miss’, ‘young lady’, and stuff, would you?” requested Ranma politely as she introduced herself in turn. Well as politely as she knew how to be without going over the top that is.
“Oh! My apologies then, Mr. Saotome! Are you some sort of shape changer, or perhaps some male variant of the Pokégirls of this world maybe?” Nova apologized excitedly, unsettling Ranma a bit. Although what really bothered Ranma was that she couldn’t decide it the man’s excitement was a bad thing, or just really weird instead.
Ranma scratched the back of her pigtail for a second or two as she decided how to answer that particular question. “Well, I guess that technically I could be considered a shape changer, mister, but this girl body and my real body are the only two shapes I got. It’s a curse I picked up because of my stupid Pop, not some ability I can control or anything. In fact, if you’ve got some hot water I can use to change back with, I’d really appreciate it. As for Pokégirls, the only thing even remotely like them I know about from my world is a video game called Pokémon,” she admitted cautiously.
“Fascinating! Lou, be a dear will you, and fetch Mr. Saotome here some hot water please! I wish to see how her transformation works. Have Elf and Zwolf bring out some snacks too, will you? I’m certain that our guest would enjoy some refreshment after walking so far,” Nova called through the open door of the vehicle behind him.
“Right away, Professor,” a mousy sounding girl called back without actually showing herself.
“Now then, would you care to come inside and make yourself more comfortable, Mr. Saotome? Or do you prefer to remain out here where you are less vulnerable. I won’t blame you if you felt threatened after all. You know nothing about me or this world in which you’ve found yourself; so you have no real way of knowing if my intentions are benign to you or not?” Nova addressed Ranma frankly once Lou had acknowledged his request.
While Ranma didn’t doubt that the man was being honest with her just now, the way he said it all just did not inspire much trust in her for the man. “I think I’d rather stay out here, if it’s all the same to you, mister,” Ranma replied, holding her ground with a wary expression.
“As you wish. However, just to put your mind at ease, Mr. Saotome, your continued survival in this world may very well be a key factor in completing my research on karma. So wether you trust me or not is irrelevant, the simple fact is that by cooperating with each we can both benefit from this meeting immensely. For instance, knowing the similarities and differences between our two worlds will likely be invaluable to both of us. Your chances of survival here will increase dramatically with the information that I can give you. While anything you can tell me about yourself and the world you came here from will advance my theories on Karma immeasurably!” Nova replied without losing any of his cheer.
“Uh, okay . . . I guess that makes sense, in a weird sort of way,” Ranma conceded, still wary of the man despite his assurances. “So, where do you want me to start?” she asked, belatedly realizing that she had no idea where to begin.
“An intriguing question, Mr. Saotome-,” Nova started.
“Call me Ranma, I keep looking for pops whenever you call me that,” Ranma interrupted him, suddenly very tired of being addressed so formally.
“Ah, Ranma then. As for your question, why not start with yourself perhaps, and then elaborate as needed?” Nova replied thoughtfully, unfazed by either the interruption or Ranma’s request.
“Are you sure you want to go there, mister, a lot of it’s kind of hard to believe? Heck, most people don’t even believe me about the curse unless I show it to ‘em first. Then they usually start acting like jerks because of it, calling me stuff like ‘freak’, ‘pervert’, ‘cross-dresser’, and stuff like that,” Ranma tried to warn him.
If anything though, Nova looked even more excited by the warning of just how complicated Ranma’s life was. “But of course I wish to hear your story, my dear Ranma! I want to know everything there is to know about both you and your home dimension!” the blond man waved off Ranma’s warning as excitedly as if it were Santa Day.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you mister . . . ,” Ranma said, giving him one last chance to change his mind about it. He didn’t show any sign of changing his mind however. “Well, it all starts out boring enough; my idiot pop drug me off when I was just a little kid to go on a ten-year training mission in the martial arts. He had some really crazy ideas about training too, let me tell you. But most of that didn’t come until later when I was about ten years old. The only crazy thing he did before that was steal the food off my plate and calling it speed training. Well that and tossing me off roofs so that I could learn to take a fall properly. Oh, and getting entire mobs of people pissed off at us so that we had to run from them or get beaten up pretty badly.
“But like I said, it wasn’t until I turned ten that he started doing the really crazy stuff, like the Cat-fist training. Which despite kind of working wasn’t much more than a sick joke the old dummy fell for since the training technique was banned for driving the practitioners insane. I’ve been terrified of cats ever since, and I can only use the technique when I’m literally scared out of my right mind. I’m supposedly unstoppable like that, except I don’t remember a thing after I come out of it again.
“I survived all of that of course, although it probably would have killed most people. Only I got cursed to change into this girl body with cold water right at the end of our training journey because of my idiot pops. And that’s when my life went from just plain messed up to being outright insane. After that we got chased across most of China by an Amazon girl named Shampoo who’d sworn to kill me for beating her in a contest. Which only happened in the first place because Pops pigged out on the poor girl’s victory feast while she was fighting the title match. Then he drags me off to some buddy’s of his named Tendo and tells me that I got to marry one of his daughters. Only I got stuck with the youngest daughter, Akane, who’s been absolutely convinced since day one that I’m a pervert just because I’m a guy . . .”
SOMETIME LATER:
“ . . . and then we wound up here in this world,” Ranma finally finished his story, accidentally forgetting not to mention that he wasn’t alone. A detail that Ranma forgot to keep quiet due in part to the long story itself. Although the snacks he’d just started scarfing down between sentences probably didn’t help either.
Incidentally, Ranma was also a guy again thanks to the water Lou provided him earlier in the story. Which led to another contributing factor in Ranma’s unfortunate slip, specifically the hungry stares that Elf and Zwolf were aiming at him. Well, Lou was doing it too, but at least she was pretending to be discrete about it. They all reminded him of those three new girls that Akane and the others had insisted on bringing with them though, not that he was sure why just yet.
“Oh, so you’re not alone then, young man? Who all came with you, and may I meet them as well?” Nova asked in his usual excited manner.
Ranma had to swallow down a sudden lump in his throat as he belatedly realized his mistake. ‘Oh, man, I forgot that the girls were even here! Akane’s probably going to tear my head off for half of what I just said about her!’ Ranma mentally groaned to himself in sudden panic.
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(Posted Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:54)
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